In college I got used to having a backpack with me all the time. After college it was hard for me to get used to not having all my stuff with me at all times. My jeans pockets were jammed with pens and markers, things to write on, a camera and other miscellaneous objects. Fortunately I didn’t work anywhere that had a metal detector.

I have some cargo khakis that are like that. At school I’d carry pens, pencils, a USB drive, my TI-84, my wallet, some spare change, and wrappers from candy in my pants at all times. The latter two are increasingly more rare nowadays however.

It’s nice to know that in my backpack I have a pair of scissors, a ruler, pens, a marker, notecards, playing cards, an electronic dictionary that has hangman on it, and chewing gum. I don’t think I could have survived high school without most of that stuff, especially the gum and cards.

I have a ScotteVest Jacket (http://www.scottevest.com/) that has 30 pockets, which is more than enough for all of my gadgets. My coat weighs anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds depending what all I think I need to carry. Also fits 2-Liters of soda-pop quite nicely.

I totally agree with Biff’s solution. Why would the same weight go for everyone? A 200 pound man should not be allowed the same weight handbagae as a 150 pound man! As long as you keep it on your person (in pockets) it should be allowed to bring as much as you want!

I ditched the backpack in school a year ago, I found it much easier to carry my stuff around in a bucket. It seems sensible; it’s secure, accessible, simple, you can just drop it and pick it up like that – it’s a dream! But it’s wierd enough that and my school newspaper did an article about the bucket people around school know me as “bucket man.” Fancy that.

It’s been 8 years now since college, and I still carry a satchel with me whenever I go to work. I guess it’s the whole conditioned-to-wear-a-backpack thing, since I really don’t need it; everything I need to do my job is at my workplace.

dude… i totally know the feeling. i’ve used my pockets to carry a pretty wide variety of stuff. and i also judge pants based on how much pocket space they have. i like pants that have enough space for me to carry three 12oz pop cans in one thigh pocket (done it before). i’ve found myself carrying a backpack around a lot recently, too. it’s good for bigger stuff like my laptop or the half a pizza i had in there earlier.

That’s why it suck to be a girl, our pants have these pseudo-pockets that nothing would ever fit in, except maybe a quarter. Although we do get to choose from a wide variety of handbags and purses. The bookstore at my university sells really cute cnavas bags for $4. Rock on.

Heh, thats how i evaluate pants. all pants i get need to be able to carry about 4 kilos worth of stuff, and more importantly have belt loops :P. there have been about 4 occasions where i filled my pockets like biff has, 2 of them being for overseas trips, and i recommend you dont do it, because whatevers at your knees will cripple you if you try to do something besides limp.

Back in HS I would carry around a pencil or two, mints, change, wallet, and maybe a book. Those were the heyday of cargo pants though, and while the whims of fashion haven’t swayed me, riding a road bike around has given me an appreciation for minimalism. Now its usually just a penknife (with pen!) while on the bike, with my 3.5″ knife and iAudio/Ultimate Ears added while at work. I now judge pants largely on how whether they have a coin pocket that fits my bigger knife well. Thankfully, most coin pockets are terrible for coins but great for 3.5″ folding knives.

I bought a snowboarding backpack my freshman year of highschool. Between tools, books, instruments, I’d average 60 lbs of stuff a day. Twelve years later, I’m still using the same pack, but it’s probably down to 10 lbs a day. I can’t fit anything in my pockets.

Holy crap – Biff and I are wearing the same pants! 10 giant pockets (average about 200 cubic inches per pocket), incredibly baggy (16″ diameter leg holes), amazingly comfortable. Does Biff know about the super-secret pocket on the back of the left knee (velcro, opens along the lining)? Took me two years to notice it there.

Taehl, you shouldn’t have told me about that pocket. Now I know exactly where to go if I mug you 😀

As for me, I tend to take my backpack almost everywhere with me. Even if I’m going out on my own and only need to bring my keys with me, the bag goes too. It comes in handy, though. It’s held groceries, video games, candy… I’ve also used it repeatedly to sneak food into theatres. I snuck a whole KFC meal into Transformers last year 😀

I use a satchel….I got it at Kumoricon four years ago, but I never used it because it was too small for my binder and books…Now I just use folders, so it’s the perfect size!

I used to have some pants that had lots of pockets and chains…I liked them alot because they made lots of noise when I walked, but they were really bad quality because they were from hot topic, and hot topic SUCKS for quality…
This was before I had a sewing machine, too, so it took FOREVER to fix them when they broke…

I make good use of pockets. I especially love my big black leather coat that lets me carry everything in the pockets.
On a normal day, in my pockets I will have my iPod, up to five USBs, my keys, my phone, several mini Sharpies, bits of paper useful for writing things down on and some hand-drawn maps of different areas/places (I find my maps easier to follow than anyone else’s because they make sense to me, although it doesn’t take long for me to get mental maps of areas).
Also, I usually keep my messenger bag on me, which usually had a pad of paper, my mini-pencilcase, my wallet, my mini-torch, and a hard folder to make it keep shape, plus anything I’ve bought.
I am a regular packrat, it seems.

Is it sad that I actually do this a lot? I wear a baggy trenchcoat over my back pack, and tie it off to fit all my carry on stuff in it. I still get funny looks from the flight attendents when I sit down.

i have a trench coat as well but since im over 6 ft tall i had to make mine from scratch i made mine to be VERY slim ( think neo from the matrix but with no buttons or zippers) its only got 3 pockets two normal roughly hip level ones and a hidden pocket behind the right hip one that reaches down a good 2.5 to 3 ft. that one i use to caryy large stuff in ( materials for my sculptures metal rods ect.) and if im heading out to walk to my friends house i slip my full sized nodachi sword into it ( odachi, think japanese katana with an extra 2 or 3 feet of blade) the only reason i carry the thing is because i tend to get jumped alot and people tend to think twice about attacking me when they see almost 4 feet of blade come sliding out of my coat >:)

Booh…
Whenever I went to school, my mother had picked out my uniform for me, based on price.
So, I NEVER GOT POCKETS!
EVER!
IT SUCKS TO BE POCKETLESS.
I had to carry a giant bag around instead.
What makes it worse is the bag said… pod.
and the word looked like poo when you didnt look closely.